Though it ultimately didn’t happen, Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal seemed to be the first match penciled into the WrestleMania 33 card at one point.
Both O’Neal and Big Show offered explanations for the match falling through even before it was officially off, with Shaq saying that it wasn’t his fault and Big Show blaming his opponent. Triple H also discussed the issue at one point and said that he didn’t think either participant was serious about the match.
While recording a live episode of his podcast in Atlanta, O’Neal reiterated that WWE was to blame for the match not happening.
“Because they kept playing,” Shaq explained. “First, they said it was me and Big Show. Then, they said it was going to be three and three. Then, they canceled it, so when they canceled it, I made other arrangements. And then they tried to call back and tried to get it done, and I just said, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ They messed it up.”
Shaq vs. Big Show was originally set up at the ESPY Awards last summer following the two facing off in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32. Shaq’s co-host John Kincade theorized on the podcast that O’Neal didn’t want to lose the match, though Shaq said that he would have been fine with losing.
The WWE released its subscriber information today regarding the WWE Network and the WrestleMania build and season was more successful in growth than last year.
Concentrating on actual paid subscriptions, the network has 1,661,000 subscribers as of today, broken down as 1,237,000 in the United States and 424,000 over the rest of the world.
With all the different free offers to bring back older subscribers and create new subscribers, there were 280,000 free subscribers as of today between the one and three months free numbers, which breaks down as 215,000 free in the U.S. and 65,000 free outside the U.S., meaning total subscribers were 1,949,000.
There were also some lower priced bargain subscriptions and actual revenues and how that all ads up won’t be available until the quarterly conference call that will take place toward the end of this month or first week of May.
Last year on the day after WrestleMania, the network had 1,109,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 345,000 outside the U.S. The greater outside the U.S. increase was because of adding new markets, but now the network is available worldwide everywhere except China, which got Mania for the first time on iPPV. George Barrios was asked today about the China numbers but didn’t answer that question.
The year-over-year increase was 11.5 percent in the U.S. and 22.9 percent outside the U.S., but that also adds in new markets.
Had growth been identical with last year during the same season, the U.S. number would have been 1,202,000 paid and the international number would have been 438,000 and total would have been 1,640,000. So overall this period was more successful than last year in creating new paid subscribers by a very slight margin.
WrestleMania 33 won’t be the last we’ve seen of Jim Ross on WWE television.
In an article that Fox Sports ran about his weekend in Orlando, it was noted that Ross has signed a two-year contract with WWE to return in a variety of roles.
“It has a specific number of dates that I’m obligated to work, which I think is good for me,” Ross said. “So look at it this way: I got my jersey back. I got brought back to my home team, and my opportunities back in WWE, I’m sure, will be multi-fold.”
Ross returned to WWE for the first time since 2013 to call the Roman Reigns vs. Undertaker main event on Sunday night. Further occasional appearances on commentary seem likely, along with Ross contributing in some other areas.
“They’ve got a lot of things that I can contribute, and I’ve been so blessed in the business that I’ve done so many different things,” Ross said. “I’ve been an administrator and a syndicator, a marketing rep, a VP of broadcasting, a head of talent relations. But the fun part is what I did tonight.”
Ross has a non-exclusive agreement with AXS TV to call New Japan Pro Wrestling’s show on the channel, but it isn’t clear what the new WWE deal will mean for that. Ross was also tapped to call ITV’s World of Sport revival after participating in the show’s pilot, but is no longer involved with the project.
Time will tell if The Hardys will be allowed to use their “Broken” characters in WWE after returning under their old personas at WrestleMania 33, but there were teases of it in videos that the company put out on Sunday.
WWE first caught up with Matt and Jeff before they made their return. While speaking in their normal voices, they discussed their feelings before the WrestleMania appearance. Matt said that he expected there to be a lot of “Delete” chants, which proved to be the case.
After winning the Raw Tag Team Championship, The Hardys reflected on their return while Matt faded in and out of his “Broken Matt” persona and said that they deleted Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson’s title reign.
Dave Meltzer told a story about The Hardys’ appearance on the post-WrestleMania edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, saying that they didn’t show up at the building until really late. Jeff told people at the hotel he was staying at that he had to go up to his room and sleep because of how beat up he was from the weekend before then heading to Camping World Stadium.
WWE presents its biggest show of the year tonight as WrestleMania 33 takes place at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
After weeks of build, The Undertaker and Roman Reigns will finally face off. The match should provide some type of indication about where Undertaker stands at this point in his career.
Things between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar will also come to a head tonight as Goldberg puts his Universal title on the line against Lesnar. Goldberg scored a dominant win over Lesnar at last year’s Survivor Series, with Lesnar looking for retribution ever since.
Elsewhere on the show, Seth Rollins returns from his MCL injury to take on Triple H in a non-sanctioned match, AJ Styles battles Shane McMahon, John Cena teams with Nikki Bella against The Miz & Maryse, Randy Orton challenges Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship, Bayley defends her title in a fatal four-way elimination match, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho square off for the US title, and much more.
We’re doing polls on this show, on last night’s NXT Takeover and last night’s ROH show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
The pre-show kicks off at 5 p.m. ET on the WWE Network (with the USA Network also carrying the second hour of it) before the main card begins at 7 p.m. ET.
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As we noted, they will announce an attendance of more than 70,000.
NEVILLE VS. AUSTIN ARIES FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
Neville retained the title using the Red Arrow after raking the eyes to get out of the last chancery and then whipping the ropes into Aries’ bad eye. They gave them time and worked what would have been a great match almost anywhere else, but this was very much like the old days of the junior heavyweights early at the Tokyo Dome where the crowd was subdued. Neville kicked out of a 450 and rolled out of the ring after the fivearm, Aries also did a Super Frankensteiner.
ANDRE THE GIANT BATTLE ROYAL
Mojo Rawley won the Battle Royal largely for the mainstream coverage of Rob Gronkowski. Jinder Mahal threw a drink in Gronkowski’s face so Gronkowski got in the ring and did a running tackle on Mahal. The last three were Rawley, Mahal and Killian Dain. Rawley first eliminated Dain and then Mahal. It started with Braun Strowman throwing one person after another out and Big Show throwing some people out. Strowman threw out Show and then a ton of people threw out Strowman just past the 2:00 mark. They let Tian Bing throw out Tyler Breeze and Fandango and Ziggler threw out Bing. It was mostly undercard guys. Luke Harper was the biggest name not mentioned before and Mark Henry was in as well.
DEAN AMBROSE VS. BARON CORBIN FOR IC TITLE
This match was okay. Certainly a lot less than you’d think for a WrestleMania match. Ambrose retained the title with the Dirty Deeds after getting out of the End of Days. Most of the match was Corbin working on Ambrose’s ribs which they were selling were hurt from the forklift angle. Ambrose did a tope early. The match ended kind of suddenly and it appeared most expected Corbin to kick out.
There was some smart money that came in very late as odds for Rawley and Ambrose winning lowered right before the match started. Rawley was actually the favorite which meant a lot of money came in on him late. Ambrose had a lot of late money, but not enough to make him the favorite. Nobody else has had major late money backing.
The New Day is out. The New Day was dressed up as characters from Final Fantasy.
A.J. STYLES VS. SHANE MCMAHON
The match had its moments that were spectacular. The highlights included Shane missed the elbow off the top onto the table and crashing through the table. Shane kicked out of the Styles clash. AJ survived the coast to coast dropkick. The finish saw Shane miss a shooting star press and get pinned after a phenomenal forearm. The story was that Shane was the real striker and got the better of that. He also did some MMA moves like a triangle off a springboard 450, an armbar and an uma plata as well as Muay Thai knees. Some of Shane’s selling looked like a super green guy but he did a lot of crazy stunts. The crowd didn’t boo either guy and were far more into this than anything so far.
CHRIS JERICHO VS. KEVIN OWENS
Owens won the title as expected with a power bomb on the apron and got the pin. Jericho had kicked out of the pop up power bomb and Jericho used the codebreaker but Owens got one finger on the ropes to stop the count. They had a hard time following the prior match early but they got the crowd with some Walls of Jericho spots that each used. They got some “both these guys” and “this is awesome” chants. The match was worked with the idea they knew each others’ spots and would be able to reverse each other.
They aired a Payback commercial and Brock Lesnar was in the commercial.
BAYLEY VS. CHARLOTTE VS. NIA JAX VS. SASHA BANKS FOR THE WOMEN’S TITLE
Bayley retained in a match that was too short for an elimination match. Nia Jax played monster early but they gave her a triple team power bomb like The Shield and all piled on her for the pin. Charlotte kicked Sasha Banks off an O’Connor roll and she went into an exposed turnbuckle and pinned her. Bayley used a Randy Savage elbow to pin Charlotte. Nobody thought it was the finish. The match was good, but not as good as the match last year. Charlotte did a tremendous corkscrew moonsault off the top rope to the floor in the highlight spot.
Greg Hamilton announced the Hall of Fame class instead of Howard Finkel. Kurt Angle got a huge reaction. He was put on a different stage than everyone else.
LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON VS. SHEAMUS & CESARO VS. ENZO AMORE & BIG CASS VS. MATT & JEFF HARDY IN A LADDER MATCH FOR RAW TAG TITLES
The crowd went nuts when the Hadys showed up. The New Day came out and teased they were entering the match but fans were chanting delete even before they came out.
The Hardys won the titles, which they really had to if they were going to be in this match when Matt climbed up the grabbed the belts after Jeff did a swanton off a big ladder to the floor onto Sheaemus & Cesaro who were on two ladders on the floor. He actually missed on Sheamus but put Cesaro through a ladder on the floor. Sheamus nearly got hurt on a spot when he took a bump off a ladder and his lower back hit a ladder on the floor that he wasn’t planning on hitting. The match wasn’t as good as what most WrestleMania ladder matches but the crowd went completely nuts for the Hardys.
JOHN CENA & NIKKI BELLA VS. THE MIZ & MARYSE
Basic match. The crowd cheered Miz a lot. The finish was a double five knuckle shuffle and John used the Attitude Adjustment on Miz while Nikki did the TKO on Maryse for the double pin. This wasn’t about the match, obviously, more about the proposal.
Cena talked about how she broke her neck and did everything she could to come back because she wanted a WrestleMania moment. He claimed he asked her to marry her going into surgery but she didn’t remember and he’d tell her when the time is right. He claimed the last thing he said to her was, “Can you hear me,” she said “Yes,” and he said, “I have one question, do you know that one day I’m going to marry you?” She said “Yes” at that time. “I just need you to say yes one more time.” He got on his knees, he said he’s been waiting so long to ask her this. Grils were screaming. There were cheers and boos from guys. They may have turned down the crowd noise. They were kissing for a long time. The two moms were sitting together and hugging them. It was really great.
HHH VS. SETH ROLLINSIN AN UNSANCTIONED MATCH
The match was really long and didn’t have a lot of heat most of the way, although it did later in the match. It was psychologically sound and well executed. Rollins kicked out of a pedigree and HHH kicked out of a Phoenix splash. Stephanie interfered once early. The finish had Stephanie holding him and HHH went to hit Rollins but Rollins moved. HHH held up but Rollins superkicked HHH into Stephanie who fell off the apron through a table. Rollins hit the pedgiree for the pin.
Now it’s time for the concert. If nothing else, with four matches left, with a concert starting at 10:15 p.m. this will be the longest Mania show of all-time.
BRAY WYATT VS. RANDY ORTON FOR THE WWE TITLE
The crowd is exhausted at this point. Orton won the title in a short match with an RKO. He had done an RKO on the floor earlier and kicked out of Sister Abigail. Match wasn’t much. The big thing was the introduction of a new gimmick where they do graphics on the ring mat during Wyatt’s matches showing maggots, bugs and snakes and such. It was cool special effects but probably would have gotten a better reaction had it happened earlier in the show.
BILL GOLDBERG VS. BROCK LESNAR FOR UNIVERSAL TITLE
The match was pretty much perfect considering how late it was. Brock started with three German suplexes but Goldberg came back with two spears in the ring and another through the barricade. Goldberg used the jackhammer but Lesnar kicked out, hit seven more German suplexes and an F-5 and got the pin. It was what was expected. The crowd was tired but they were going nuts through all of this. The crowd was definitely pro-Lesnar and did boo Goldberg early on, but were just going nuts as the guys just hit their big moves.
ALEXA BLISS VS. NAOMI VS. CARMELLA VS. NATALYA VS. BECKY LYNCH VS. MICKIE JAMES FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE
Fast paced match with Naomi doing a lucha stretch submission on Bliss to regain the title. Because they were in Orlando, Naomi was the most popular. Short but well timed with nothing but big moves. The biggest spots were Lynch using the exploder on Ellsworth and Natalya doing a sharpshooter on Noami and Carmella at the same time.
The New Day came back to claim an attendance 75,245 which is a total worked number even more than usual.
UNDERTAKER VS. ROMAN REIGNS
Reigns pinned him after a spear after Undertaker during the long match had kicked out of three spears and Reigns did about a million Superman punches. There were a lot of chair shots. Undertaker choke slammed him on a table, and got near falls with a power bomb, a choke slam on a table and a tombstone. Jim Ross when it was over said the deed to the yard has changed hands. It didn’t sound like people booed the finish that much but they did clearly turn down the sound and people were tired and then they hit the pyro. The match didn’t have a ton of heat, but when Taker kicked out of the third spear they went nuts. Taker was laid out for a long time after until sitting up. There was one pretty botched spot when Reigns was supposed to tombstone him and couldn’t get him up a few times. The match was as good as could be expected as they went long. Undertaker was clearly limited and they just kept doing their big spots but it worked as well as it was going to.
The show ended with Undertaker in the ring in his full garb and everyone was standing. He teased leaving, came back in, took his gloves off and put them in the ring. He took his coat off and folded it and put it in the ring as fans chanted “Thank you Taker.” Then he took the hat off which got a standing ovation. It was clearly the retirement cermony capping off a long but extremely newsworthy show with a lot of memorable moments.
With his match against Roman Reigns scheduled to be the main event and Jim Ross set to be part of the broadcast, there was more speculation than usual that this year’s WrestleMania would mark the end of The Undertaker’s in-ring career.
It appears that is the case. After being defeated by Reigns, Undertaker was given what was clearly a farewell to close the show. He laid flat on his back before sitting up, then took a look around the arena and left his gloves, jacket, and hat in the ring.
When he exited the ring, Undertaker embraced his family in the front row quickly before heading back up the entrance ramp and giving a salute to the audience.
As Dave Meltzer has noted, Undertaker privately indicated that he was retiring after WrestleMania last year and has talked retirement for years, but WrestleMania 33 was the first time that WWE gave him a true sendoff. People in the company have since been tweeting “#ThankYouTaker” since the show went off the air.
As was expected, Jim Ross returned to WWE as part of the WrestleMania 33 broadcast.
Ross was introduced before the Roman Reigns vs. Undertaker main event began and joined Michael Cole and John “Bradshaw” Layfield on commentary. We reported last Friday that Ross was set to be part of the show.
The match was the first time Ross has appeared in the WWE broadcast booth since “retiring” in 2013 after being blamed for a panel event that he hosted to promote that year’s WWE 2K video game going awry.
Ross has kept busy since then. He’s currently the play-by-play voice alongside Josh Barnett on New Japan Pro Wrestling’s AXS show and called the World of Sport pilot on ITV before being earmarked to maintain the role in its revival.
Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed Ross’ status and what the WrestleMania appearance could mean for his future on the post-WWE Hall of Fame edition of Wrestling Observer Radio.
Right before the Raw Tag Team Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 33 was set to begin, The New Day came out to announce that another team was being added. Matt and Jeff Hardy then made their way to the ring using their old entrance music and were identified as Team Xtreme by Michael Cole on commentary.
There were chants referring to their “Broken” gimmicks throughout their appearance, but it remains to be seen if they’ll ever be allowed to use them given the ongoing legal situation with Impact Wrestling.
The Hardys captured the titles in the match, which also included Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Enzo Amore & Big Cass, and Cesaro & Sheamus.
Despite Jeff downplaying the reports in an interview with CBS Sports, it was anticipated that The Hardys would make their way back to WWE soon after leaving TNA in February. Dave Meltzer reported that WWE was the likely destination then, though they had a short run in Ring of Honor before dropping the promotion’s tag titles back to The Young Bucks at Supercard of Honor XI.
Video of The Hardys making their return is available below:
For 32 years, WrestleMania has been the biggest day on the calendar for fans of pro wrestling. Those big shows have given fans hundreds of matches and countless memories and will no doubt continue to do so going forward.
As we head into WrestleMania 33 tonight and having seen all of them, I thought it would be fun to try and compose my ultimate WrestleMania card.
While it’s doubtful that this weekend’s big show will compare to the card I’m going to present here, it’s quite possible that at least one of the currently scheduled matches for tonight could make its way onto this list a year from now.
My ground rules were fairly simple:
A 10 match card with the major titles (and one minor one) defended.
No individual wrestler can appear in more than one match.
No title can be defended more than once.
No individual show can have more than one match represented.
With the ground rules out of the way, here is my ultimate WrestleMania card:
This match was The Rock’s first Mania match in eight years, set up the previous year when Rock hosted Mania as Cena main evented the show against The Miz.
The two had teamed up at Survivor Series the previous fall, which marked Rock’s official in-ring return, but this was the match everyone was waiting for. The match itself was very good, clicking in at ***3/4 according to Dave Meltzer and the show was very successful on PPV, doing 1.253 million PPV buys, a WWE record that still stands and will never be broken with the advent of the WWE Network.
Rock and Cena would rematch the following year for the WWE title with Rock dropping the strap to Cena in a passing the torch moment.
I cheated a little bit here as this match was actually a 2/3 falls match with the IC and European titles both up for grabs. The titles were both held by Angle, who was in the midst of the most impressive rookie year in WWF history.
Rules of the match were that the IC title would be defended in the first fall and the European title in the second. Because the match was a three-way, Angle could lose either belt without actually taking a fall. In the first fall, Benoit won the title after landing a diving headbutt on Jericho.
In fall two, Jericho scored a pin over Benoit with the Lionsault to take the European title. The match only got a **3/4 rating but has fond memories for me as I was a big fan of all three at the time and still am of two of them as Jericho is still going strong and Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
This was the show that made Daniel Bryan “The Man” in WWE, if only for a short period of time. Stips here were that Bryan would have to beat Triple H in order to advance into the main event title match between Randy Orton and Batista.
I considered putting the main event of this show on my card, but I had other plans for that title. In this match, Bryan submitted “The Game” and would go on to win the big belt in the show’s main event in an emotional moment that won’t soon be forgotten.
Especially notable was that young Connor Michalek got to witness his favorite wrestler win the gold before passing away later that month. Michalek was honored the next year with the Warrior award in another emotional moment with his family being presented the award by Bryan.
I was at this match live, the only WrestleMania I’ve personally attended, and it was considered by most, myself included, as the match of the night. When WWE Hall of Famer Lita announced earlier in the night that the former Divas title would now be christened the Women’s title, it was a very special moment and I have to admit to shedding a little tear.
The women lived up to the big stage they were put on. Charlotte’s father Ric Flair accompanied her to the ring and rap icon Snoop Dogg rapped his cousin Sasha Banks’ theme song as she made her Mania debut. Charlotte won the title and would go on to dominate the title scene for most of the next year and will challenge Bayley this year in a four-way for the Raw Women’s title.
The two men most responsible for there even being a thing called WrestleMania met inside the ring for the first and only time. Yes, McMahon is not a wrestler. Yes, Hogan was way past his prime. But, these two actually had a very entertaining match.
The match scored three stars from Dave Meltzer which is much better than anyone could’ve reasonably expected. After winning the Undisputed title the previous year, this was pretty much the culmination of Hogan’s return to WWE. After beating McMahon at WrestleMania, he would have a short run as the masked Mr. America before leaving the company in early summer. It’s been rumored that Hogan may make a return to WWE soon so that’s something else to watch for this year.
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. This match scored just short of that elusive five star rating (****3/4 stars), but in my mind, it was a five star match. It was a rematch from WrestleMania 2000 between the same three teams, but this time out, it also included their cohorts Rhyno, Lita, and Spike Dudley.
All nine went all-out in an effort to steal the show and that they did. Just days after the WWF won the Monday Night Wars and following a match between Vince (WWF) and Shane (WCW), the “owners” who would go on to feud for much of that year, the tag teams shone in this epic battle that took the ladder match to another level.
Edge and Christian won the belts after the Dudleyz had come into the bout as champions but all nine of these wrestlers improved their stock. Continuing a running theme here, it’s heavily rumored that Matt and Jeff Hardy will return to WWE this weekend and there is a three-way tag team ladder match scheduled for Sunday’s show as well. While it’s unlikely that will be even close to this classic in terms of quality, if the Hardys chose to make their return during this match, it would certainly be a memorable moment.
This was the second consecutive year these two wrestled at Mania but this time, they main evented the show. This was another instant classic, a ****3/4 match that many (myself included) gave the full five stars to.
If you’re reading this, you know the story. After losing to Undertaker the previous year, Michaels put up his career against The Deadman in order to get a rematch. And in a “heartbreaking” moment, HBK’s career ended after an epic battle.
Undertaker ran his unbeaten streak to 18-0 with the win and would add three more victories to that total before finally succumbing to Brock Lesnar four years later.
In front of, ahem, 93,000 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, this match stole the show and inspired a generation of wrestlers including many of today’s top stars. While this match scored “just” 4.5 stars from Dave Meltzer, it’s an easy five stars in my book and for many years, this was the best match I had ever seen.
The story here was almost as good as the match itself. Savage had held the belt for over a year and Steamboat was his most ardent challenger. Savage had injured Steamboat the previous year in a memorable angle and vowed revenge here by taking Savage’s previous gold.
Steamboat had George “The Animal” Steele in his corner to counteract Savage’s manager, the lovely Miss Elizabeth. Steele was obsessed with the lovely Elizabeth and that played a part in the finish here. When Savage attempted to use the ring bell to again injure, Steele interjected, knocking Savage off the top rope. Steamboat would go on to pin Savage after a small package to win the belt after an epic back and forth battle.
Savage would go on to turn babyface later that year and win the WWF World title at the following year’s Mania while Steamboat would leave the WWF shortly after his most famous win before returning at that same show.
The only five star match on the card, this was the match that put Austin on the map and would set up the WWF for the most profitable period in its history. Austin came into the match as a heel who was starting to get the cheers of the fans while Hart was the longtime babyface who was hearing jeers after taking on a more whiny persona leading into this matchup.
By the end of this match, a rematch from Survivor Series the previous year, the roles had been reversed. Austin became the anti-authority, hell-raising babyface for the Attitude Era while Hart would spend most of 1997 heading the top heel stable in the WWF, the re-formed Hart Foundation, before exiting the company following the most famous double-cross in wrestling history.
As far as the match itself, it was a thing of beauty. Austin never gave up and the image of him struggling to break free from Hart’s Sharpshooter with blood pouring down his face is an iconic image that no fan from that era will ever forget. Austin never did quit, but after passing out, special referee Ken Shamrock stopped the match and awarded it to Hart. Hart refused to break the hold, cementing his heel turn, leading to he and Shamrock coming to blows.
Austin refused assistance after coming to and struggled to the back on his own power, earning the cheers of the crowd and kicking off the most successful babyface run in company history.
After winning the Royal Rumble much to the dismay of WWE fans, Reigns earned the title match against Lesnar, who had retained his title at the same show against John Cena and Seth Rollins in another classic match.
These two had a physical war, the likes of which has rarely been seen at a WrestleMania. The reactions of the crowd greatly added to the intrigue of the match as Reigns was heavily booed even though he was portrayed as the babyface while Lesnar was cheered just as heavily, despite his heel tactics.
With both men down and after each had kicked out of each other’s finishers, Rollins’ music hit. The Money in the Bank winner from the previous year chose this moment to cash in his instant title shot. After hitting his patented curb stomp on Lesnar, Rollins went for the move a second time but Lesnar reversed it into an F-5 position. Reigns saved his former Shield teammate with a spear but Rollins would thank him by curb stomping Reigns and winning the title.
Hopefully tonight, another classic will be added to the list.
It would be fair to say that the build to Sunday’s WrestleMania 33 has not gone well as few of the matches have captured people’s imagination, and every week in the final stretch on the Road to Wrestlemania has resulted in fans getting progressively less interested.
To me, the reason for this disinterest is because of Vince McMahon’s fatal flaw as a booker: a lack of emotional intelligence.
Pro wrestling is a business built around trying to elicit reactions from the audiences. Promoters make money by making the fans cry, cheer, laugh, leer, gasp, jeer, shout, or scream; sometimes a combination of all of them. A good promoter understands emotions and works to manipulate them.
Like his father, McMahon was never the most adventurous booker. Throughout the 80s, all he would have to do is develop heels that would rile up the Hulkamanics. In the 90s, he used himself to antagonise Steve Austin’s growing army of fans. Along the way, McMahon seems to have confused the ease with which he convinced fans to hate their beloved hero’s opponent with a more thorough ability to manipulate his audience.
The best example is when WWF finally defeated WCW in the Monday Night Wars. At the point that he led his promotion to victory over its hated rival, McMahon refused to let the fanbase revel in the shared triumph. Instead, he tried to turn WCW babyface to further the pre-existing storyline between him and his son, Shane.
McMahon’s belief that the hatred WWF partisans had for WCW was less important than his family soap opera is a telling expose of his mental process. It shows his deluded belief in a bull-headed kayfabe, believing that his storylines can triumph the reality of his fans’ emotional reactions to the product.
This insistence on ploughing ahead with pre-planned storylines is badly undermining interest in this year’s WrestleMania card. Look at Seth Rollins. That him missing Wrestlemania after being WWE’s 2015 MVP would ender him to viewers was obvious to all but those booking Raw. Even people within the promotion clearly understood as the WWE 24/7 documentary was clearly a salvage job of footage previously planned to help hype Rollins’ return ala HHH in 2001-02.
And if fighting the fans’ desire to embrace Rollins upon his return was a mistake, what happened next was a fiasco. Somehow, WWE thought that the crowd was ready to embrace Rollins after he had injured yet another popular performer (Finn Balor), cementing his reputation as a reckless worker. The second that injury tcost Balor his title and months of his career, Balor returning to seek revenge on the man who injured him was the natural direction. Instead, Balor is sitting out this year’s WrestleMania because they can’t find a place on the show for him.
Another good example is Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. The growth of the two men’s friendship dominated Raw throughout the winter, and the comedic bantering between the two best friends became a highlight of WWE programming. There was no indication that fans were tiring of the act, and every piece of evidence suggested that fans were desperate to embrace both men. It’s amazing that a promotion who has long highlighted WCW’s idiocy in breaking up the Hollywood Blondes when recounting Steve Austin’s career insists on doing the same to an even more successful act.
If WWE booked with a grain of fans’ desires, they would have sought to turn both men babyface. Imagine if the Festival of Friendship had ended with Owens revealing HHH’s attempts to persuade him to betray Jericho, and the best friends united to face HHH and Samoa Joe at Fastlane, leading to two fresh singles matches at WrestleMania for the two Raw singles championships. Instead, Joe is not even wrestling on the biggest show of the year.
We see similar mistakes with the booking of the world championships. Goldberg cannot be a credible world champion in 2017. This is not acting and just because he looks the part does not mean he can pull off the role. Yes, he has charisma but his ring work clearly lacks the credibility and consistency required.
Whereas in his prime he could participate in relatively prolonged and even exchanges of power moves (look to his excellent matches with Scott Steiner), today it seems he would struggle to simply deliver more than five. Whereas in his prime he could work a full house show schedule, in the current culture, he will most likely win and lose a world title during a return to WWE that has encompassed four matches…and one of them was a battle royal!
It’s exactly like the 2002 revival of Hulkamania. Fans were happy to see Hulk Hogan back and were excited to see dream matches, but felt their intelligence was being insulted when he was given the world title. That Goldberg won the title in yet another short match compounded the problem, whereas at Survivor Series it seemed like an ingenious surprise finish. Now the realisation is dawning on even the most credulous fans that maybe Goldberg just isn’t capable of doing anything extensive anymore.
What too many people fail to accept is that the world title has never just been put on the biggest star with plenty of money-drawing acts being denied the championship because promoters didn’t feel they could credibly promote them as the best in the world.
At the other end of the spectrum is AJ Styles who is quite clearly the premiere performer on SmackDown. Since the Brand Extension, Styles has been the dominant personality on Tuesdays, whether it be through his surprisingly effective promos or his typically excellent ringwork. And yet, SmackDown’s world championship will be contested between two performers who, until January, were languishing in the midcard; one a failed cult leader and the other a successful arsonist.
Meanwhile, Styles will be in a match with Shane McMahon that would have much more naturally played to Dean Ambrose’s strengths.
It’s wrong to say that fans don’t care about WWE performers. They really do. The problem is that Vince McMahon doesn’t understand their feelings towards to his superstars. He couldn’t understand their appreciation for Rollins’ superb 2015 performances, nor their dismay as he cost Balor his opportunity to be a headliner. He couldn’t appreciate how much fans enjoyed Jericho and Owens’ comedic bantering, nor their desire to see them turn on the corporate overlords seeking to split them up.
He couldn’t recognise that people enjoy Goldberg as nostalgic special attraction, nor that they recognise Styles as the best performer on Tuesday nights. Rather than booking to capitalise on these emotions, he’s ploughed ahead with storylines completely divorced from his fanbase’s feelings.
So, it’s no wonder that part of his fanbase feels completely divorced from his storylines on the biggest night of their year.
Will Cooling writes for Fighting Spirit Magazine, the UK’s biggest and best full-colour pro-wrestling and mixed martial arts newsstand magazine. This month, he interviews Travis Banks about what it takes to successfully manage the business side of the pro wrestling business. FSM is available in print from all good British and Irish newsagents, and the digital edition is avaiable worldwide through www.tinyurl.com/PocketFSM.
In addition to the previously announced Tian Bing, at least one more wrestler from NXT will be taking part in the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on Sunday.
WWE announced on Saturday night that Killian Dain would be making an appearance in the battle royal on the WrestleMania 33 pre-show. Formerly known as Big Damo, Dain signed with WWE in 2016 before eventually being given a new in-ring name.
Dain was added to the SAnitY stable alongside Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Nikki Cross after he debuted on NXT TV. Those four were in action in an eight-person tag match in the opener of NXT TakeOver: Orlando on Saturday, with Dain getting the pin for his team.
This year’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will be the fourth edition of the match to take place after it debuted at WrestleMania 30. Cesaro, Big Show, and Baron Corbin are the previous winners.
Dain’s addition to the match was announced in a video by Cathy Kelley:
Though there have been plenty of unofficial updates throughout its construction, WWE provided the first official look at the WrestleMania 33 set with a video hosted by The New Day.
The video shows what has been known since pictures of the set began to make their way online. It’s based on the layout of Universal Studios in Orlando and the canopy above the ring is shaped like another giant wrestling ring.
That video is available to watch below:
The Camping World Stadium set will be on display at WrestleMania 33 tomorrow night. The two-hour pre-show kicks off at 5 p.m. ET, with Neville defending the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Austin Aries and the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal currently scheduled for it after the SmackDown Women’s Championship match was moved to the main card.
Before that, the Amway Center will be home to NXT TakeOver: Orlando at 8 p.m. ET tonight.
What used to be just one big show a year has turned into an entire week of action as WrestleMania week is finally upon us.
There will be more events than ever in the Orlando area this year as hundreds of wrestlers will compete for various promotions. Many of these shows will be available to watch live, whether they’re on the WWE Network, FloSlam, or standalone iPPVs.
We have a master list for you, including times, locations, and big matches going down for all the live streaming action starting later this week.
Featuring: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. ACH for the EVOLVE title, Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi vs. Michael Elgin & Donovan Dijak for the EVOLVE tag titles, Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle
Featuring: Pete Dunne vs. Mark Haskins for the PROGRESS title, Tyler Bate vs. Mark Andrews for the WWE United Kingdom Championship, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jimmy Havoc, Matt Riddle vs. Trent Seven for the Atlas title
Featuring: Mercedes Martinez vs. Candice LeRae for the SHIMMER title, Vanessa Kraven & Tessa Blanchard vs. Mia Yim & Kay Lee Ray for the SHIMMER tag titles, Santana Garrett vs. Shayna Baszler
Featuring: The Hardys vs. The Young Bucks in a ladder match for the ROH tag titles, Christopher Daniels vs. Dalton Castle for the ROH World Championship, Marty Scurll vs. Adam Cole for the ROH TV title, Cody vs. Jay Lethal in a Texas bullrope match
Featuring: Bobby Roode vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Championship, Asuka vs. Ember Moon for the NXT Women’s Championship, The Authors of Pain vs. DIY vs. The Revival in an elimination match for the NXT tag titles, Aleister Black vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas
Featuring: Drew Galloway vs. Fred Yehi vs. Jon Davis vs. Matt Riddle vs. Parrow vs. Tracy Williams to determine the first WWN Champion, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Mark Haskins for the EVOLVE title, Pete Dunne vs. ACH, Ethan Page vs. Jimmy Havoc
Featuring: Michael Elgin, ACH, Keith Lee & Sammy Guevara vs. AR Fox, Sami Callihan, Dave Crist & a mystery partner, Fred Yehi vs. Dezmond Xavier for the FIP World Championship, Martin Stone vs. Jon Davis for the FIP Florida Heritage title
WrestleMania 33 pre-show (5 p.m. ET)
Location: Camping World Stadium
Where to Watch: WWE Network and other online platforms (full pre-show)/USA Network (second hour only)
Featuring: Neville vs. Austin Aries for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch vs. Mickie James vs. Naomi vs. Natalya vs. Carmella in a six-pack challenge for the SmackDown Women’s title
Featuring: Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for the Universal title, The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, Triple H vs. Seth Rollins in a non-sanctioned match, John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse, AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon, Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship
With the show fast approaching, plans for WrestleMania 33 are falling into place.
People involved with the SmackDown Women’s Championship match have been told that it’s been moved to the main card after initially being scheduled for the kickoff show, though things can obviously change as the event is timed out.
After some backlash about its pre-show placement, the match was moved to the WrestleMania main card on WWE.com’s listing on Thursday afternoon. Becky Lynch later tweeted, “You spoke up. You’re awesome. Thank you. #WrestleMania”
The match was described as Alexa Bliss defending against Lynch, Mickie James, Natalya, Carmella, and Naomi in a six-pack challenge when WWE ran through the card on Tuesday’s SmackDown.
As Dave Meltzer reported on last night’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, the current plan is for The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns to be the WrestleMania 33 main event. Meltzer also notes that a few NXT wrestlers are scheduled to be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but that is subject to change as well.
Another name has been added to the list of entrants for the 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
WWE announced on Thursday that Tian Bing would be making an appearance at WrestleMania 33 as part of the battle royal. Bing previously made a brief cameo on NXT TV alongside HoHo Lun in the first round of last year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and has been wrestling on NXT house shows.
Bing signed with WWE last summer as part of the company’s ongoing plans to enter the Chinese market. He later made his debut at a house show in Shanghai, China in September against Bo Dallas.
As Dave Meltzer noted in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, this will be the first year that WrestleMania is available to watch live in China. It will be offered as an iPPV by PPTV since there is no WWE Network availability in the country.
The 2017 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will be part of the two-hour WrestleMania pre-show on Sunday, which begins at 5 p.m. ET.
